It is important for many reasons well understood by those skilled in the art to characterize the nature of interference that exists in communications networks. One way in which nodes of a communications network characterize the condition of the network, including the amount of interference present, is by sending probes, as is done in accordance with the well-known MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) standard. However, probes take up valuable resources and may need to be sent frequently in order to identify events that occur during short, sporadic periods of time (commonly referred to as “bursts”).
In conventional networks, an inter-frame gap (IFG) occurs between transmissions. The IFG is typically calculated to be as short as possible. The minimum amount of time is dictated by the amount of time required for the channel to become quiet from the last transmission (i.e., for a transmitter to turn off) and the associated receiver of that node to turn on. That is, there is a finite amount of time that is required between the time a node transmits and the time that node will be ready to receive. In addition, there is a finite amount of time required for a node that is receiving during a frame to turn the receiver off and turn a transmitter on and prepare to transmit.